a bleeding purple utah jazz blog

Preseason Game 1: Dare I Say It?

I’m excited…about CJ. His lack of boards ain’t gonna cut it with Coach, but I like what I see (or, to be technically correct, what I saw in the box score and kind of heard about on the radio feed).

The sun is shining, the air is fresh and clean, and the world is bright and happy. OK, none of that is actually true, but it feels that way. The (pre)season has finally started, the Jazz won, and I am so excited about this upcoming season that I am almost floating out of my chair with anticipation.

Stateside preseason games will be radio-only (if it weren’t for the memory of Hot Rod’s rumbly rumble, I would say that Locke did a decent job apart from the constant replaying of the generic Boozer sound byte about proving his doubters wrong that honestly could have been recorded today, last month, last year, or five years ago) and Boozer is still in Utah and still talking out of a body part that was not meant for speech*, but apart from that mutantly gigantic thorn in my side, everything is rosy and peachy.

In other news, it was quite entertaining to read about how Jerry asked the guys “to let the replacements do their jobs and to leave the occasional outburst to him,” and then living up to his word by jumping out of his seat and yelling at the refs during the third quarter. That’s our good old reliable Jerry!

But what’s up with the NBA warning teams not to publicly criticize the replacement refs, when the whole reason they even have replacements is because the League can’t come to an agreement with the union guys?…You want more habitual line-stepping from the NBA? The League also informed teams that they’ll start issuing fines this season for players who stand up in front of the bench–because they’re blocking the view of fans sitting in those pricey front-row seats. No lie, the official memo actually said players were allowed to stand up to “spontaneously react to a notable play,” but then “immediately” had to sit back down.

*”You think about it, with the height that we have, we could be really big,” Boozer said. “Paul is like 240 [pounds], great skills. He can play a lot of three for us. He can mix it up and rebound and bang a little bit, kind of like what Matty [ Harpring ] did last year.” [sltrib]

I am running out of ways to say “STFU!!!! @#$#@%#$^@#$!!!!” FB apparently now thinks of himself as the coach who gets to decide who plays what position and for how many minutes, and is peeing around the “4” to mark his territory. You think Sap is going to be pleased when he hears FB labelling him a “three” and comparing his role to that of Matty, who is most definitely a SF?